Lunchtime: Ben Laney, manager of the barbecue shack at Facebook, puts out a basket of cornbread. / Jessica Brandi Lifland, for USA TODAY

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SAN FRANCISCO - If you haven't been to the company spa, arcade, bar or bowling alley, you probably work outside of Silicon Valley.

echnology companies are lavishing employees with perks here at a time when much of the nation is experiencing just the opposite: job cuts, belt-tightening at the office and the strains of a generally sour economy.

However, these are employers flush with cash: Zynga and Facebook alone raised $1 billion and $16 billion, respectively, in IPOs. This latest boomlet in tech is spurring another talent war like the late-'90s dot-com era. And in order to attract and retain ...